[BB_Eye]

Originally Posted by Livia

I don't have a problem with anyone wearing clothing and symbols of their faith. The burkha is different. If nothing else it's a threat to security. If you want to wear a hajib, fine. If you want to wear a burkha, go and wear it in Saudi.

To letmein, who likened the German's decision regarding the burkha to their treatment of the Jews... gimme a break. If a woman walked around in Saudi in a bikini, do you think they Saudis would be all cut up about stopping it? It's opposite ends of the same scale. If women want to adhere to a medieval dress code (and you say Europeans have learned nothing!), let them do it somewhere women haven't fought for emancipation.

I think what letmein meant was that Germany in the Third Reich is possibly the most terrifying example of totalitarianism in recent history. Germany has had to learn the dangers of the Idea of Progress and social engineering the hard way.

I think this burkha ban demands a worldview predicated upon the ghastly notion that people can somehow, paradoxically, be coerced into being free. That to allow people to do, say (and wear) what they please somehow constitutes oppressing them and they are only free when they are made to see reason. The inevitable culmination of this idealistic mentality in revolutionary France was the Reign of Terror, in the 20th century and today, it is the modern police state.